MONDAY, 11.30AM:
In a deal that will almost double its number of retail outlets from 185 to 332, Shoprite Holdings has bought the OK Bazaars Group from South African Breweries. Under the deal, announced at the weekend, the OK Bazaars name may become the franchise brand for the Shoprite Checkers group.
Those OK stores not converted to either Shoprite or Checkers are likely to be franchised; investment will be offered early next year, the company said, especially to redundant employees and entrepreneurs from disadvantaged groups.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
EMPLOYMENT BILL PROGRESSES THE Basic Conditions of Employment Bill was approved by parliament’s labour portfolio committee on Monday, despite continued objections from Business SA and the Congress of SA Trade Unions. The committee did however find several issues in the Bill that it said would need further investigation. It accepted the labour department and Cosatu’s proposal that the 45-hour week be entrenched as a non-negotiable right, and rejected proposals that small businesses be exempted from the bulk of the Bill’s provisions.
IBM WINS POLICE TENDER A consortium headed by IBM SA has been awarded a R10-million tender to link the work of the police, courts and prisons to track suspects through the system.
The consortium includes the US-based system integration specialist TRW, which has worked with IBM on similar systems worldwide, and local partners Motswedi Technology, Everest Systems, Safika Technologies and CHM-Vuwani.
MPUMALANGA TWINSMPUMALANGA linked up with Austrian province Carintia on Monday, by signing a 12-point twinning agreement to co-operate on environmental planning and technology, Carinthia will also host a Maputo Corridor investment seminar in Klagenfurt early next year..
NEW ROW OVER SOL BOOK A NEW twist was added to the controversy over the unauthorised Sol Kerzner biography, stopped by a court interdict. Sun International claims publication of the book was timed to damage its licence application for a Gauteng casino. Sun has noted that the book’s author, Allan Greenblo, is MD of a Johnnic subsidiary, and Johhnic is a rival bidder. Johhnic chief executive Vaughan Bray dismissed the allegation as a “load of tripe” and said his company had nothing to do with the book.
IMF HOLDS BACK ON KENYA THE International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday that it is continuing to hold back on aid to Kenya until the government shows more progress on eradicating mismanagement and corruption. Despite assurances from president Daniel Arap Moi, the IMF refuses to move until concrete reforms have taken place.
STALS SPENDS $1,5bn ANALYSTS estimate that it has cost Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals $1,5 billion on four trading days to support the rand after the sell-off of local bonds and equites by overseas investors. The actual figures will only be released on Monday as part of the bank’s October report. Reserve Bank governor Chris Stals has said only that “there was no large scale intervention … we provided liquidity because there was a shortage of dollars.”.
JOBS SUMMIT POSTPONED A PRESIDENTIAL summit on job creation, scheduled for November, has been postponed to next year because neither the government nor the National Economic Development and Labour Council have agreed on a strategy to balance economic growth and job creation.
STRONG FOREIGN BUYING FOREIGN traders bought R1,097 billion worth of shares on the JSE last week, despite the global stock market crisis, the JSE said on Monday. In the same week last year, they bought only R162,7 million shares. Foreigners have spent R22,4 billion on the JSE so far this year, compared to R5 billion over the same period last year.